Finding a common experience

When Framingham High School junior Sephora Fadiga wrote an essay about her life as an immigrant from the Ivory Coast in the United States, she poured her heart out.

She was doing it to help her come to terms with the experience that brought her many losses and made her a stronger person, but deep in her heart, Sephora said she was also hoping to bring inspiration to a bigger audience.

"I wanted people to read my story," said Sephora, who came here at age 10 in 2002 to join her father she hadn’t seen in eight years. "I wanted other immigrants to know that

Liz Mineo

When Framingham High School junior Sephora Fadiga wrote an essay about her life as an immigrant from the Ivory Coast in the United States, she poured her heart out.

She was doing it to help her come to terms with the experience that brought her many losses and made her a stronger person, but deep in her heart, Sephora said she was also hoping to bring inspiration to a bigger audience.

"I wanted people to read my story," said Sephora, who came here at age 10 in 2002 to join her father she hadn’t seen in eight years. "I wanted other immigrants to know that despite the difficulties we have to face in a new country with a new language, we shouldn’t give up."

Sephora didn’t give up in spite of the hardships she had to endure. While struggling to learn a new language and feeling lonely in her new country, she had to cope with the losses of her father, who died two years after her arrival, and her brother, who died back home waiting for his immigration papers.

"That was the worst part," she said. "I missed my family when I was here. I wasn’t there when my brother died."

Sephora was one of 16 FHS students that took part in the Oral History Independent Study Project that asks students to tell their immigration stories to each other and write essays. Students, who earned 1/2 credit toward high school graduation, will read their stories May 14 at 6 p.m. in the Costin Room at the Framingham Public Library.

For most of the students, taking part in the project was enlightening because it made them aware of how in spite of the differences in languages and cultures, immigrants share similar experiences. Many had to leave families, friends behind and start a new life in a country that is filled with challenges. Participating students hailed from Colombia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

"They got to meet people who may not look like them but share the same experience," said Sybil Schlesinger, Mazie Mentoring Program director. "They had to learn English, work to support their families and struggle to hold onto their culture."

The fear of losing their roots is present in most of the essays. There is also a feeling of nostalgia for the old country and the life they left behind. In his essay, Ralph Valcin, 17, who came from Haiti two years ago, wrote, "Even if there is terror in Haiti, everyone lives like family. When it’s very hot at night, we go and sit outside with the neighbors and tell stories from the old days, or sit there and watch the moon and the stars."

Lorena Maximo, who immigrated from Brazil nearly five years ago when she was 10, shared the sentiment. She wrote, "What I remember of Brazil is not a lot, but how I felt happy and comfortable... It is not that I regret coming to the United States, but I sure do miss Brazil and wonder how my life would have been if I was there."

For the project, students also had to interview an adult immigrant and write an essay about that person’s immigrant experience, but in writing their own stories, they became the masters of their feelings.

In her essay, Sephora wrote, "I felt lost and sad when I first arrived in the United States because I realized that I was only dreaming. What woke me up was the harsh reality that life in a foreign country is hard because not only did I not know anybody, but also I did not speak the language. And for the first time in my life, I felt alone and lonely."

Despite all the difficulties immigrants face, most students found a renewed sense of pride in their home culture and newly-found feeling of gratitude for coming to the land of opportunity.

For Zain Osama, who came her last year from Pakistan, being an immigrant has been a mixed bag. In the beginning, there were feelings of embarrassment for his last name, aside from other hurdles he and his family had to overcome in trying to settle down. After his parents became sick, Zain and his older brother started working and are the breadwinners of the family.

"I got a chance to improve my life by immigration," wrote Zain. "Many people try to leave their countries to make money and make their life better, but only some of them get a chance, so I think I am lucky in this case that God gave me the chance to improve, and for me it’s a challenge to prove hat I deserve it."

Though for Stephanie Tillman, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic, coming here meant to change her social status, leaving behind an upper class neighborhood and exclusive private school in her home country and moving to a low-income neighborhood and a public school in Framingham. Yet the experience has made her feel closer to her roots.

"My grandpa said I’m too Americanized and that I only listen to that hip hop and rap," she wrote. "But in me, I don’t feel that way. I feel Dominican and nothing else."

Sephora, who wrote she can remember the day when she came here like "it was yesterday" and her feeling of amazement at "seeing so many white people all at once," said that, the end of the day, immigrating to the United States was a good thing.

She wrote in her essay she’s proud to be an African immigrant, but she fears she may lose some of the connections to her African roots and culture, but she knows there’s a better future for her here.

"Even tough, the life of an immigrant is difficult, I know I have more opportunities here of having a good education and career that will make me happy," she wrote. "I have been in the United States since I was ten years old and I am glad to be here."